Atlantic League planned for 2002

By Mihir Bose

8:34PM GMT 31 Jan 2001

THIRTEEN of the leading clubs from Holland, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and Belgium have signed a declaration agreeing to break away from their domestic leagues and form an Atlantic League to start in July 2002.

The clubs plan to play on Saturdays, with midweek reserved for the present European club competitions. There will be promotion and relegation between the Atlantic League and the clubs' domestic leagues, and the hope is that the winners of the Atlantic League will qualify for the Champions league.

The estimate is that in five years the Atlantic League would be worth £250 million and match the top leagues in Europe.

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Peter Fossen, director of PSV Eindhoven, said: "We need a change of mindset from UEFA. For us, it is a matter of survival. But every time we talk to UEFA, they quote us their ten commandments [that only UEFA can run European competitions]."

Fossen will meet Lars Christer Olson, a UEFA official who deals with professional football and marketing. Fossen added: "We talk, they listen and nothing happens. We want two-way dialogue. We do not want war. In war you get casualties. But that depends on UEFA and what the clubs decide when they meet on Friday. My bet is we will get a split."

Plans for a rebel league were first laid three years ago by Fossen's boss, Harry van Raay, president of PSV. Initially he wanted a Benelux league. A year ago Allan McDonald, then chief executive of Celtic, came to see Van Raay and plans for a wider league developed involving clubs from countries which miss out on the riches of European football.

Fossen's detailed dossier shows that the clubs in the big five European markets of England, Italy, Germany, Spain and France are pulling away from the clubs in Holland, Scotland, Portugal and Scandinavia. Manchester United will earn £45 million a year from the new television deal; the total television income of the Atlantic League clubs will not be more than £8 million a year.

When the Atlantic League gets under way it will have 16 teams, and the starting date of July 2002 has been chosen because that is when television contracts in the countries involved come up for renewal.

The Atlantic League are also seeking to build relations with G-14, the group of top European clubs who between them have won 65 European trophies and include Manchester United and Liverpool.

Such an alliance will be formidable and UEFA are discussing changes to the European club competitions to meet the challenge. They are to consider revamping the UEFA Cup, making it more like the Champions League in format and selling the television rights centrally as is done for the Champions League.

But Fossen said: "That will not solve the problem. It will only increase the gap between the clubs in the top five European countries and the clubs in countries such as Holland and Scotland."

To put more pressure on UEFA, the Atlantic League have also secured the support of some European MEPs who have complained to the European Commission that UEFA are behaving in a monopolistic fashion by not listening to plans for a new league.